Brush Up Your Shakespeare! – Susan Lucille Davis

No one could be more surprised than I was when one of my sixth-graders said, after we had slogged through Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 29” at the end of our poetry unit, “Hey, this is fun. Shakespeare ought to be an elective.” Hence, our “Fun with Shakespeare” elective was born – no grades, no homework, just fun. As this elective course came into being, however, I wondered, how was I going to update Shakespeare as 21st-century entertainment?

My first destination was the Folger Shakespeare Library – in person, since I was visiting in the Washington, DC, area over Spring Break. There I picked up a book to create a paper model of the Globe theater, an activity book, and a collection of “quips, cusses, and curses” to break the ice. Happily, I also stumbled upon a stack of bookmarks that listed the Folger’s online resources, a playlist on iTunes including songs by Taylor Swift and Elvis Costello, for example. The Folger also has a YouTube channel and specific resources for younger audiences.

From there, I introduced my students to The Reduced Shakespeare Company and an Interactive Globe Theater website. An excellent TedEd video, “Insults by Shakespeare,” by April Gudenrath introduced us to Shakepeare’s language through his insults, something any middle-schooler could grow to love. Next, I felt they were ready for assigned monologues to try out. Stagemilk provided help with links to a list of “Female Shakespeare Monologues” and “Male Shakespeare Monologues,” leading me to famous speeches by Iago, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Hamlet, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Jaques, Juliet, and Portia.

Searching #Shakespeare on Twitter led me to a daily dose of favorite quotes, information about Shakespeare’s birthday celebrations around the world, and @ _W_Shakespeare himself. Or is it @Wm_Shakespeare? (Funny, they look exactly alike!)

My students and I have more than enough Shakespeare fun to last to the end of the school year – or next year’s Shakespeare Day. If you feel the need for the serious stuff, which abounds on the web, you might start with the following: